The Unmarried Unemployed.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1361, 21 May 1895, Page 6

The Unmarried Unemployed.

The Premier has received the following petition, to which are attached iO4 signatures : The humble petition of the unmarried and unemployed residents in the city of Auckland. Whereas the Government employment here offered is in its scope confined to married men, and they form but a small part of the unemployed, and have credit alone in the present commercial community; and whereas the fact of men marrying without means of support is a sign of improvidence and a peril to any Slate or colony, and the consequence highly productive of destitution and crime, which the majority of the unmarried have well considered, and therefore constitute the mote moderate and stable portion of this community; and whereas work of any kind at any price is not to bo procured by your petitioners, thus reducing them to the alternatives of crime, beggary, or even starving. Now, therefore, your petitioners request and pray that for the future all Government works and employment shall bo given both to married and unmarried, and that they shall share equally in the distribution ot labor, and shall receive the same wages, thus abolishing the unjust and necessary distinction, married and single, and allowing the opportunity of providence among the younger portion of the people, and for the future and for ever abolishing the premium on men who, without foresight, commit themselves to matrimony, hoping for the stare to find them with the means of livelihood, many being known to procure the presence of their wives for the express purpose of being amenable to the u bounty.”